High‐Strength Wear‐Resistant Cu/Tungsten Carbide/Diamond Composites Fabricated by Powder Metallurgy

Abstract

Copper‐based diamond composites are widely used for thermal management and wear‐resistant materials. In this work, Cu/diamond, Cu/tungsten carbide (WC)/diamond, and Cu–0.92Cr/WC/diamond composites are fabricated by high‐energy ball milling and rapid hot‐pressing sintering. Physical characteristics, compressive strength, and tribological properties of the studied composites are investigated. The compressive strength of Cu/7wt%WC/diamond composites is 102% higher than the Cu/diamond composites, reaching 415 MPa. Compression fractures extend from the interface due to compression cracks, consistent with the compression curves from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The crack propagates from the interface during the compression experiment, which is consistent with the result of MD simulation. The Cu/7wt%WC/diamond composites exhibit a wear rate of 0.6 × 10−6 mm3 (N m)−1 and a friction coefficient of 0.37 at 50 N. The addition of WC and diamond improves the compressive strength and wear resistance. These findings are helpful in the development of copper composites with high compression strength and wear resistance.